Hi-tech Forensic Workshop

Cayman hosts the newly formed Caribbean Association of Prosecutors' first meeting, with a forensic workshop as its highlight, on Thursday and Friday, 14-15 June at the Marriott Resort on Grand Cayman.

Thirty-nine delegates from the Caribbean British Overseas Territories and the Commonwealth Caribbean countries as well as the UK and Canada will participate along with 23 local delegates, comprising prosecutors and RCIPS personnel including crime scene managers and police officers.

The workshop is organised jointly with the Commonwealth Secretariat, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office through the Overseas Territories Department Criminal Justice Office in Miami and the Eastern Ontario Regional Forensic Pathology Unit in Canada.

The first training workshop, titled Enhancing the Effectiveness of Prosecutors in a Challenging Environment, will cover transnational crimes and forensic science. Cayman's Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms Cheryll Richards, QC, points out it meets the association's objective to ensure continuing education of its members.

"The workshop aims to enhance the delegates' understanding of critical forensic and scientific data and analysis, transnational crimes' issues and the care of victims in serious crimes," she explained.

Experts from the UK, Canada and the Eastern Caribbean are to provide forensic science and pathology training on homicides, expert evidence in DNA profiling, sexual assault, blood spatter pattern analysis and ballistics. The workshop will also underscore the principles of evidence-based cross-examination, the role of the defence expert witness and the effective prosecution of transnational crimes, Deputy Director Trevor Ward outlined.

Additionally, the conference will also serve as the inaugural meeting of the Caribbean Association of Prosecutors to elect officers and determine the way forward.

"We are pleased to host this jointly organised workshop," Cayman's DPP Richards commented. "Such regional training has the potential to significantly improve the quality and delivery of prosecution services across our member countries at a time when the legal environment has become more challenging," she noted.